"Today, the Islamic Republic is the world's number one power. The outside world is not informed enough about our mind-boggling achievements," says Friday Prayer Leader for Tehran, Ayatollah Kazem Sadiqi.
“the United States never had lockdowns. (Not like elsewhere in the world, at least.)” This is an opinion in the NYT
So, which of the two opinions above is the craziest?
Ukraine and the Third World
An interesting article appeared in the NYT about the international instability revealed by the Ukraine War.
S. Jaishankar, the Indian foreign minister, believes, the war is a transformative moment. A “world order which is still very, very deeply Western,” as he put it in an interview, is being hurried out of existence by the impact of the war in Ukraine, to be replaced by a world of “multi-alignment” where countries will choose their own “particular policies and preferences and interests.”
India has rejected American and European pressure at the United Nations to condemn the Russian invasion, turned Moscow into its largest oil supplier and dismissed the perceived hypocrisy of the West. Far from apologetic, its tone has been unabashed and its self-interest broadly naked.
“I would still like to see a more rules-based world,” Mr. Jaishankar said.
With its almost 1.4 billion inhabitants, soon to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, India has a need for cheap Russian oil to sustain its 7 percent annual growth and lift millions out of poverty. That need is non-negotiable. India gobbles up all the Russian oil it requires, even some extra for export. For Mr. Jaishankar, time is up on the mindset that “Europe’s problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s.”
The Ukraine war, which has provoked moral outrage in the West over Russian atrocities, has caused a different anger elsewhere, one focused on a skewed and outdated global distribution of power. As Western sanctions against Russia have driven up energy, food, and fertilizer costs, causing acute economic difficulties in poorer countries, resentment of the United States and Europe has stirred in Asia and Africa.
“Since February, Europe has imported six times the fossil fuel energy from Russia that India has done,” Mr. Jaishankar said. “So if a $60,000-per-capita society feels it needs to look after itself, and I accept that as legitimate, they should not expect a $2,000-per-capita society to take a hit.”
India is a deeply divided country but it is still a gigantic demographic force whose aims and needs may not correlate with those of the West. At some point, this will have to be resolved and that resolution will need shepherding by insightful, intelligent people. And if those people are not found in the U.S., they will be found elsewhere.
S. Jaishankar, the Indian foreign minister, believes, the war is a transformative moment. A “world order which is still very, very deeply Western,” as he put it in an interview, is being hurried out of existence by the impact of the war in Ukraine, to be replaced by a world of “multi-alignment” where countries will choose their own “particular policies and preferences and interests.”
India has rejected American and European pressure at the United Nations to condemn the Russian invasion, turned Moscow into its largest oil supplier and dismissed the perceived hypocrisy of the West. Far from apologetic, its tone has been unabashed and its self-interest broadly naked.
“I would still like to see a more rules-based world,” Mr. Jaishankar said.
With its almost 1.4 billion inhabitants, soon to overtake China as the world’s most populous country, India has a need for cheap Russian oil to sustain its 7 percent annual growth and lift millions out of poverty. That need is non-negotiable. India gobbles up all the Russian oil it requires, even some extra for export. For Mr. Jaishankar, time is up on the mindset that “Europe’s problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s.”
The Ukraine war, which has provoked moral outrage in the West over Russian atrocities, has caused a different anger elsewhere, one focused on a skewed and outdated global distribution of power. As Western sanctions against Russia have driven up energy, food, and fertilizer costs, causing acute economic difficulties in poorer countries, resentment of the United States and Europe has stirred in Asia and Africa.
“Since February, Europe has imported six times the fossil fuel energy from Russia that India has done,” Mr. Jaishankar said. “So if a $60,000-per-capita society feels it needs to look after itself, and I accept that as legitimate, they should not expect a $2,000-per-capita society to take a hit.”
India is a deeply divided country but it is still a gigantic demographic force whose aims and needs may not correlate with those of the West. At some point, this will have to be resolved and that resolution will need shepherding by insightful, intelligent people. And if those people are not found in the U.S., they will be found elsewhere.
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